346 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Scattered groves and remnants of forest are found to the 

 south and west of this line, such as the timber along the Red 

 River, and in the Minnesota Valley, on the shores of lakes, and 

 in the coulees cut by streams through the Coteau des Prairies. 

 This timbered area, however, sinks into insignifiance when 

 compared with the vast areas of surrounding prairie. 



Various theories have been advanced to account for the 

 treeless condition of the great prairies. Some have thought that 

 the rainfall is insufficient. Others have pointed to the fact that 

 the rainfall is unequally distributed through the year, sufficient 

 perhaps through the summer, but deficient through the winter. 

 Others have suggested that the hot southwest winds from the 

 plains scorch and wither the trees and make the forest impos- 

 sible. Many think, and with much show of reason, that the 

 treeless condition of the prairies is due to prairie fires set by 

 man. Indeed there is reason to believe that for a long time 

 the great enemy of trees has been man. Professor Shaler has 

 advanced the idea that the American Indians before the advent 

 of the whites had advanced to such a degree of culture that they 

 had begun to regard the great herds of bison then living on the 

 prairies somewhat in the light of domestic animals, and that 

 they purposely set fire to the prairies and forest openings to 

 make the pasturage better for them. Whatever may have been 

 the effects of the prairie fires started by the Indians, there can 

 be no doubt that the axe of the settler, as well as the brush and 

 prairie fires started by him, has been very detrimental to such 

 tree growths as have sprung up on the prairies. Thus, at Min- 

 nesota Falls, where there was at one time quite an extensive 

 growth of natural forest, the trees have been entirely cleared 

 away, and the ground broken up for wheat fields ; and this, too, 

 at a point fully sixty miles beyond the "Big Woods", where the 

 surrounding country was already all prairie. 



At Lynd, in Lyon County, there was at one time a fine grove 

 of hard maple trees in the valley that the Redwood River has 

 cut through the coteau. This maple grove has been cut away, 

 the ravine has been fenced in for a pasture, and the forest has 

 been completely destroyed. Had the stock been kept out the 

 trees would have reproduced themselves. A similar calamity 

 has occurred to many of the groves and forested areas through- 

 out the prairie districts. The natural tree growth was usually 

 found on rather rough and uneven ground unfitted for farming. 

 The surrounding prairie was all broken up for wheat raising. 



